Thursday, July 13, 2006

Summer fruit

Im so in love with the summer because summer means fruit.
I love fruit. Fruit of all kinds.
I love to shop for it, I love to bring it home and wash it. I love the bright colors of it.
Every day I usually carry at least 2 kinds of fruit to work with me. One for mid morning and one with my lunch.
This summer Im having a little bit of trouble eating my fruit (especially apples) because of these braces on my teeth, but where theres a will, theres a way. If all else fails, cook it. :-)
This week I made cooked apples to go with some sausages we BBQ'd.
Then theres this...

Cherry Coffee Cake. Can you say mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?
Not so hard to make.
Cherry Coffeecake
For the topping:

8 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch square baking pan.
Either with a wooden spoon or with a mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix well.
Add the yogurt and vanilla extract and mix until combined.
In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add to the batter all at once and mix just until the ingredients are wet. Don't over mix the batter.
Spread the batter into the prepared pan. The batter will be a bit sticky and might be difficult to spread but don't worry. Level it off as best you can.
Sprinkle the prepared topping evenly over the batter.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the cake.
Let cool completely before removing the cake from the pan.
Enjoy!

friends, near and far

The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.

On being happy

"For most of life, nothing wonderful happens. If you don't enjoy getting up and working and finishing your work and sitting down to a meal with family or friends, then the chances are that you're not going to be very happy. If someone bases his happiness or unhappiness on major events like a great new job, huge amounts of money, a flawlessly happy marriage or a trip to Paris, that person isn't going to be happy much of the time. If, on the other hand, happiness depends on a good breakfast, flowers in the yard, a drink or a nap, then we are more likely to live with quite a bit of happiness."~Andy Rooney